3pm A winning day for Talking Horses

Chris Cook: Fleetwoodsands came good at 9-4 up at Wolves, under a fine ride from Tom Queally, who was always well placed.

Faithfull Duchess ran on from a mile back under Hayley Turner to be second and is worth bearing in mind for

another day.

Sadly, Tomintoul Star did the square root of not much at Pontefract.

Harrytheactor is showing his experience with that story about Wollow, who won the Guineas in 1976.

Randall's pick of all the great horses to have passed through Cecil's hands is:

1 Reference Point

2 Slip Anchor

3 Royal Anthem

Goofs, I am planning to do a Claims Five on the best racing-related jokes, just as soon as I can scrape five together that have not been told by absolutely everyone at some point.

Today's best bets, by Chris Cook

It's Henry Cecil week in the Racing Post and their authority on the sport's past, John Randall, hails Cecil today as "the greatest Classic trainer in British racing history". "No other trainer has ever matched him for quality and quantity of winners," says Randall.

Any amount of kudos awaits those who can successfully name the three horses that Randall lists as the best that Cecil has trained. I'm not sure the beast he lists in second would figure in my top five.

Tomintoul Star (2.45) wouldn't make it into the top 1,000 horses Cecil has trained, having shown little ability in five starts for him over the previous two seasons. She has been threatening to win a race, however, since joining Ruth Carr and has been placed four times out of five this year, with excuses on the other occasion. Pontefract's fillies' handicap is competitive but she can get involved at 9-2.

Ollie Pears has always struck me as a trainer worth looking out for and, in his fourth season with a licence, things seem to be going well for him. He's on an 18% strike-rate (13 wins from 74) and returning a level-stakes profit of about 30% on all runners. Readers may remember him as a teenage apprentice, winning the Magnet Cup on Mr Confusion in 1992.

Today, he runs Fleetwoodsands (2.30) in the opening sprint at Wolverhampton. He claimed this one from Tracy Waggott in mid-May and sent him out to make his handicap debut at Carlisle recently. Fleetwoodsands was a "nearest finish" third of nine after getting a couple of bumps on his way through under Ian Brennan.

Tom Queally takes over in the saddle today and, as the horse has been left on the same mark, any improvement and a bit more luck in running should see him go close. I'm not the only one who can see the case for him, however, as he's 11-4.

Maiden races are trickier than you think, as I discovered yesterday when backing Petronius Maximus at The Curragh. For those who didn't see it, he fell with about a furlong and a half to go, when leading. Opinions differ, but I think he was the most likely winner, especially as he had the favoured stands' rail. Life, eh?

Anyway, those who backed Toolain last time had similar cause for reflection after Michael Jarvis's two-year-old swerved and unseated Frankie Dettori at Sandown with the race apparently in his pocket. Dettori makes the journey to Wolverhampton today for the retrieval mission at 3.30pm, though it will be a brave gambler who tries to get their cash back at odds of 1-2.

Tipping competition - a new week

You will all be stunned to learn that shears39 held onto his mammoth lead last week, finishing with a final profit of £66.50 after that early 66-1 winner. Slackdad38 did well on Friday, with winners at 9-1 and 8-1.

This week's prize is a copy of Sea The Stars: The story of a perfect racehorse, a hardback published by the Racing Post in celebration of the blessed animal. Sea The Stars proved himself one of the very best, of course, with victory in the Eclipse, which will be run at Sandown on Saturday.

As ever, our champion will be the tipster who returns the best profit to notional level stakes of £1 at starting price on our nominated races, of which there will be three each day up until Friday. Non-runners count as losers.